In My Hands
by Chibi Cheesecake
Summary: Has anyone else wondered about when Malik left to form the GhoulsRare Hunters? Did he and Rishid just leave, or did they say goodbye? What exactly was Malik's 'horrible fate', the one Isis had foreseen? With those and other questions in mind, I wrote this


In My Hands  
  
Summary: Has anyone else wondered about when Malik left to form the Ghouls/Rare Hunters? Did he and Rishid just leave, or did they say goodbye? What exactly was Malik's 'horrible fate', the one Isis had foreseen? With those and other questions in mind, I wrote this. *One-shot*  
  
Disclaimer: Nope, own nothing.  
  
Mojobubbles: Woohoo, Malik-Isis-Rishid angst. ^^  
  
Kamilah: Gee, we neeeeeeeever write anything like that........  
  
Mojobubbles: ^___________^ *glomps Rishid for no apparent reason*  
  
Rishid: *looks down* O_O  
  
Malik: O_O Get OFF him!  
  
Kamilah: Mojobubbles, let go of the nice Egyptian.......*muttering* he's scarred enough as it is......  
  
Mojobubbles: True. V_V  
  
Rishid: @_@  
  
Kamilah: How come all he's doing is making faces?  
  
Rishid: ^_^  
  
Kamilah: O_O Ok, now Rishid making that face is just scary.  
  
Rishid: X_X  
  
Mojobubbles: Hey look! A Malik/Rishid face! ^^  
  
Kamilah: o.O How is that a Malik/Rishid face?  
  
Mojobubbles: The things are supposed to be that black stuff under their eyes that's really really really really hard to draw.  
  
Malik: It's called kohl, you idiot.  
  
Mojobubbles: o.O My computer has eyeliner, eye shadow, and eye makeup as synonyms for kohl. ^______^  
  
Rishid: -_-  
  
Malik: -_- It's not makeup, dammit!  
  
Mojobubbles: *snigger*  
  
Kamilah: Well, now that we've completely wasted your time, we'll get on with the fic.  
  
Mojobubbles: Which was inspired by Fuel's "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" (Hence the title. "Don't faaaall away/and leave me to myself/don't faaaaaall away/and leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands again/leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands/love lies bleeding") Which involves a duel. Which are hard to write. Especially if it's a duel between two really good people. *coughYamicough*  
  
Kamilah: ^^  
  
Mojobubbles: Oh yeah, although I do love Malik to death, I made him a rather spoiled brat when he's a kid. ^^  
  
********************************************  
  
Glossary of Random Japanese Terms That May Be Used At Any Given Time: (Yes, I'm having Egyptians speak Japanese :P)  
  
-sama: lord, master, etc.  
  
-san: Mr., Mrs., etc. (Not showing quite as much respect as -sama)  
  
neesan: big sister  
  
niisan: big brother  
  
sugoi: wow  
  
chichi: father  
  
kuso: damn, crap, etc.  
  
itai: hurts, it hurts, ow, etc.  
  
arigato: thank you  
  
gomen: sorry  
  
shikashi, demo: but, however, etc  
  
ne: right?, am I right?, etc.  
  
hai: correct  
  
iie: not correct  
  
(See, hai and iie are not necessarily yes and no, but actually 'what you've said is correct' and 'what you've said is not correct', respectively. Get it?)  
  
*********************************  
  
"Neesan, lemme see!" the boy cried, jumping up and down, trying to see over the shoulders of his big sister and big brother.  
  
"Sh, Malik, not so loud," his sister scolded. The boy, called Malik, made a face and crossed the room to his bed and sat down with a *whumph*, arms crossed and a pouty expression. The girl, his sister, turned to him and rolled her eyes.  
  
"Just a minute, Malik-sama," the boy said quietly. He was probably more nervous than the girl was about being discovered. Maybe he was being selfish, but if they were caught, it was likely *he'd* be punished the worst. Just because he, Rishid, wasn't technically a member of the family......  
  
"C'mon, Isis, I wanna see!" Malik whined. Being the spoiled baby of the family, Malik could get away with pretty much anything. And then, he did have a right to be like that, after what had happened only months ago, on December 23 (yup yup, that's Malik's birthday). The scars were beginning to darken.....  
  
Finally, Isis turned to Malik. "Come here and see these," she said. Malik grinned and hopped off the bed. His smile faded slightly when he saw what they had been looking at.  
  
"Toranpu-gemu desu ka?" he asked, cocking his head.  
  
"Not just any card game," Isis explained. "It's a new game, called 'Duel Monsters'."  
  
"Sugoi.....watakushi-tachi wa yaru-masu ka?" he pleaded.  
  
"We have to learn the rules first, ne?" Rishid smiled.  
  
Malik grinned. "Hai!"  
  
************************************  
  
Malik squinted at his hand. The lighting in his house, or lack thereof, certainly didn't make the small print on the cards any easier to read.  
  
He found that although he had picked up the game quickly and wasn't bad, what made him a good duelist was the way he could analyze the way the opponent played. Isis, for example, would set up a strong defense and find a way using magic and trap cards to bring down an opponent's stronger monsters. (*coughlike-in-the-Kaiba/Isis-duelcough*) Rishid would concentrate on building his defenses while summoning weaker monsters which he would use as a tribute for a stronger monster. (*coughlike-in-the- Jou/Rishid-duelcough*) (Well, actually, in that duel, that's kinda what Malik told him to do.......^^U) Malik's strategy was a little bit of both. He had strong monsters, and decent magic and trap cards.  
  
They had to duel at night, in secret, because if their father found the cards, they would all be in heaps of trouble. After all, it had been against the rules of the clan for Rishid to go and get the decks in the first place.  
  
Right now, it was Isis against Malik, Malik's turn. His life points were at 2500, and Isis' at 2700. He had just sacrificed a Hitotsu-Me Giant for Ansatsu, and had a Monster Reborn and an Imperial Decree facedown. "Your turn," he said.  
  
Isis looked as though she was formulating a plan. "I switch my Mystical Elf to attack mode, and play the magic card Shield and Sword."  
  
Malik groaned, because Shield and Sword meant that the attack and defense of their monsters would be switched for one turn, making the attack of Ansatsu only 1200, while the attack of Mystical Elf was 2000.  
  
"I attack Ansatsu with Mystical Elf, and end my turn," Isis said calmly. "Next I play a monster face down, and end my turn."  
  
Malik sighed. He was losing, by 1000 life points. He drew a card, and nearly groaned out loud. It was only a Three-Legged Zombies. He wished he had a monster with a stronger defense, but all his other monsters had four levels or more. He had no choice. And he was almost sure that whatever monster Isis had just laid out would be something that could easily withstand the 1100 attack points of Three-Legged Zombies.  
  
"I play this card face down, and end my turn."  
  
Isis looked down at her cards, and drew another one.  
  
"I summon Mystical Elf and my face down monster, Giant Soldier of Stone, to summon Wingweaver in attack mode."  
  
'ACK!' Malik thought, panicking. 'That's probably her best card!'  
  
"I attack your face down card, and end my turn," Isis stated.  
  
Malik sighed again and deposited his Three-Legged Zombies in his graveyard.  
  
'There are only a handful of monster that can stand up to that kind of attack strength, and I don't think I have any!'  
  
Malik bit his lip, and looked at is deck.  
  
'There's gotta be *something* in there that can help me.......'  
  
'Come on,' Malik thought, slowly putting a hand on his deck. 'I have to draw something.....' He slowly pulled the top card off, and looked at it.  
  
His eyes grew huge.  
  
'Sugoi.'  
  
He had forgotten about *that* card.......  
  
And he'd drawn it. Pretty crazy, almost as if the cards had been.....listening to him?  
  
(*poking fun at dub Yami* HRrrr! Believe in the Heart of the Cards, MARIK! *falls over laughing hysterically*)  
  
He looked from the new card to a Reinforcements trap card in his hand and then to the Monster Reborn on the field, and quickly formulated a plan that would have Isis beat in one turn.  
  
"Alright," Malik said. "I summon Copycat!" he said, placing his new card face up. "And the card I'm copying is your Wingweaver. Next, I'm gonna activate my face down Reinforcements, raising my Copycat's attack from 2750 to 3250, enough to take out your Wingweaver."  
  
"Ah, but I counter with Rageiki," Isis said, placing said card on the field.  
  
"And I counter that with....Imperial Decree!" Malik said, grinning. "Your Rageiki has no effect!"  
  
"Next, I'll attack your Wingweaver, and you lose 500 life points."  
  
He smirked. "And that's not all."  
  
"Next, I activate Monster Reborn!"  
  
Isis' eyes widened. "Oh no......."  
  
"Yup, I reborn your Wingweaver, and use it to attack your life points directly."  
  
Malik sat back and smirked. "I win."  
  
Isis smiled. "My, Malik, you're getting very good at this."  
  
Malik beamed, gathering up his cards. "Oh.....neesan, your Wingweaver," he said, handing the card back. "Sugoiiiii....Sore wa subarashii....." he said to himself, examining the card. (Malik: Woooow....It's great)  
  
"If you like it so much, keep it," Isis smiled, pushing it back to him.  
  
"Neesan! Honto desu ka!?" Malik exclaimed.  
  
"Yes, really," Isis said, smiling at his eagerness.  
  
"Arigato, neesan!" Malik laughed, placing the card carefully in his deck.  
  
*******************************  
  
"Arigato, neesan," Malik said quietly, on a night about 3 months after the duel. "Thank you for taking me to see the sun.....even though it ended......the way it did." He swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to Isis, sitting next to him on the stone steps that lead up and out of the house.  
  
Rishid was lying in Isis' room, unconscious. Their father.....lay in the middle of another room, leaning against the wall in a backdrop of his own blood.  
  
Malik squeezed his eyes shut as the smell of blood suddenly filled his nose.  
  
"It's not fair," he choked, turning and burying his head in Isis' shoulder.  
  
"I know, Malik," she whispered, reaching around and stroking his hair. "I know."  
  
********************************  
  
Isis suddenly sat up in bed, wide awake. She hated dreaming about that day.....the day that everything had changed........the day their father died.......  
  
But then she heard it.  
  
She heard the voice of 14-year-old Malik screaming in his sleep.  
  
Isis, now 18, drew her knees to her chest. Sometimes, when Malik dreamed it was the only time he seemed human.  
  
Over the last few years, he'd grown so distant, and so cold.  
  
And over the last few years, Isis had been living in her own world, in which Malik's unfriendliness was simply grief, and that it would be alright in time.  
  
That's what she kept telling herself, even though deep down she knew it wasn't true.  
  
Malik and Rishid had been spending a lot of time behind closed doors, whispering among themselves.......Isis kept telling herself they were closer than brothers, that was to be expected. She merely overlooked the fact that they'd never been so secretive before........  
  
She didn't know.....or maybe it was that she didn't want to accept.......that the siblings were growing apart.  
  
Because Malik was plotting.  
  
He and Rishid had learned much about the rumors about the pharaoh, had learned about a group that stole rare Duel Monsters cards called the Ghouls........  
  
And Malik was almost ready to begin his quest for revenge.  
  
**********************************  
  
A few weeks later, Malik and Rishid woke in the middle of the night, prepared to leave, maybe never to return.  
  
The way they spoke in hushed voices stirred up memories Malik forgot he even had. Dueling in secret, being told to be quiet all the time.......the memories flew through his mind like dust kicked up under the feet of a weary traveler.   
  
"Kuso," he muttered as his deck slipped from his trembling fingers. It wasn't so much his clumsiness that he was cursing, but the fact that he was suddenly so clumsy. 'I knew I'd have to leave sometime.......' he told  
  
himself sternly.  
  
Malik crouched down and began gathering up his cards. 'I think that's all of them.'   
  
"Malik-sama, wait," Rishid said quietly, holding out one more. Malik looked down, and his breath caught in his throat.  
  
*Wingweaver.*  
  
He looked from Rishid to the card to the hallway, and suddenly knew what he must do.  
  
"I'll be right back," Malik whispered. "There's something I forgot to do." Rishid nodded, and Malik turned on his heel and walked back down the hall.  
  
**************************  
  
He looked inside, heart beating rapidly. Good, she was still asleep. Malik didn't know how he would be able to say goodbye if Isis was awake.........  
  
She looked so peaceful, one arm draped over her side. Malik slowly eased himself down onto the side of the bed. Biting his lip to keep from saying anything, Malik reached out and laid his hand on hers.  
  
Malik suddenly leaned forward and buried his head in the sheets. "I know you don't understand, but I *have* to do this," he choked, his voice muffled. "I still love you, neesan, and nothing will ever change that." Squeezing her hand one more time, Malik got up and slowly began  
  
to walk out of the room.  
  
"Malik.don't go."  
  
Malik bit his lip and stood stock-still. Dammit......he should've been quieter. "B-but you knew.......we both knew......."  
  
"Th-that doesn't.........I only wanted........."  
  
Malik didn't quite know what to say, turning around. Isis just didn't......she always knew what to say, was always calm, cool, and collected. But now.......  
  
"Neesan........" Malik began. "It's not you. This is just something I need to do. I-I want you to know.......no matter what happens, no matter what I may say, I - and I always will - love you. Nothing will ever change that."  
  
"Malik, don't go," Isis whimpered, getting out of bed and coming closer to Malik, who drew away. "Please.......you're all I have left.....I can't lose you and Rishid....."  
  
"I'm sorry!" Malik burst out, the tears becoming harder to control. "I *have* to!" With that, he turned and left. As soon as he had left the room, Malik shut the door in her face and walked out as fast as he could, because he didn't want to hear her cry when he left.  
  
*********************************  
  
Above ground, Rishid and Malik walked across the desert in deafening silence. Malik could not banish Isis' face from his mind, could not ignore how visibly hurt she was as he left.  
  
A single tear ran down his face as he realized that he'd broken her heart. Would she ever forgive him?  
  
"Don't look back," Malik said suddenly, sharply, more to himself than to Rishid. "W-we can't look back, we can't go back......"  
  
********************************  
  
Isis slowly blinked her eyes open, realizing it was morning and wondering why she'd been sleeping on the floor of her room.  
  
Then she remembered.  
  
"Malik!" she gasped, getting up as fast as her stiff muscles would allow and running out of the room. She looked in his room, in Rishid's room, throughout the whole house, clinging to the false hope that both her brothers were still here, wondering what had gotten her so riled up.  
  
Isis finally stopped at the stone stairs leading up out of the house. And suddenly, knowing that there was a whole vast world right above that wooden trap door scared her more than anything.  
  
No, it was knowing, realizing, that her brothers were gone. That they were out in that vast, open space.  
  
That was what scared her.  
  
Isis sat down on the stairs, numb, her knees drawn close to her chest.  
  
Alone.......they were gone, and she was alone......  
  
Tears slipped down her face, as the rest of the last night's events came back to her.  
  
*~*Flashback*~*  
  
Isis flinched as the door was shut in her face. She heard footsteps echoing down the hall, and felt a numb disbelief sweep over her. How could they really be.....gone?  
  
Isis fell to her knees, the numbness becoming evanescent, replaced by an aching in her chest, and the bubble Isis had been living in for five years popped.  
  
How could she have been so blind? Why didn't she see what Malik was thinking?  
  
Tears splashed onto the cold stone floor, but Isis didn't care. All she could think about was how she hadn't seen.  
  
And now..........it was too late.  
  
Isis wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed, feeling more alone than she ever had in her whole life.  
  
*~*End flashback*~*  
  
**************************  
  
(And yes, this next section is rather confusing. It's supposed to be. ^_~)  
  
Isis looked over at the calendar. October 10th, 2004. Only a few more weeks until the anniversary of the day their father was killed......only about a month until the anniversary of the day Malik failed.  
  
Had she really not spoken with him since Rishid disappeared? And that had been.......what, 7 or 8 months ago?  
  
Isis sighed, feeling a strange sense of foreboding. Nothing was wrong, why did she feel like.......  
  
Suddenly, Isis was rudely jerked from her thoughts by the phone ringing.  
  
She shook her head and crossed the room, picking up the phone.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Miss Ishtar?" asked a very official-sounding voice on the other line.  
  
"Yes....." Isis said cautiously, the nagging feeling of dread growing harder to ignore.  
  
"This is Officer Nelson from Domino Police. Miss Ishtar, we need you to come down right away. There's been an accident." He paused.  
  
"Your brother was involved."  
  
**************************  
  
"Miss Ishtar........" Nelson said slowly, once she had arrived and inquired her brother's health. "There was nothing we could do. He was dead before we even arrived."  
  
Silence.  
  
"No," Isis stated bluntly. "My brother is NOT dead."  
  
Nelson sighed. "If you'll please come with me."  
  
He led her through the police station, other policemen looking up from their posts and shaking their heads sadly.  
  
Isis felt as though her heart was in her throat.  
  
Finally, Nelson brought her into a room full of medical instruments. There was a staff member in the room, standing over a body laying on a metal slab, a sheet pulled over it.  
  
Isis could barely even hear the policeman's 'We know this must be hard for you, but we need you to cooperates', staring down at the body with wide eyes.  
  
The medical person who'd been in the room gently picked up the sheet, and pulled it down, revealing the face.  
  
"No," Isis whispered. "No. I-it can't be him." Slowly she reached out and touched the pale face with trembling fingers.  
  
The body was so cold........it reminded her of a time when her brother had laid in bed, sick for a week, and how she and Rishid had hardly ever left his side.......  
  
"NO! NOOOO!!!" Isis screamed suddenly, backing away. "It can't be him!" she sobbed over and over, sinking down to the floor, her eyes wide. She suddenly felt as though she couldn't breathe, feeling as though the sight of Malik's dead body was choking the very life out of her.  
  
The room grew blurry, and Isis was barely aware of Nelson and the other staff member rushing to her side, saying something about going into shock.  
  
Her breathing grew shallower, tears streaming down her face, and suddenly everything went black.  
  
*********************************  
  
Suddenly, Isis' eyes snapped open, and she sat up, her heart pounding in her ears.  
  
"MAAAAALLIIIIKK!!!!"  
  
(Mojobubbles: *is having a 'Fellowship' moment* :P)  
  
She looked around, realizing.......she wasn't at the police station anymore.  
  
She was back in her own room, in her own bed, and Isis' eyes widened. A dream. It had been a dream. A very morbid, disturbing dream, but a dream nonetheless.  
  
Isis suddenly giggled, nearly hysterical.  
  
"He's not dead," she whispered. "That wasn't real......"  
  
But as soon as she said those last three words, her logical side took over and analyzed the dream.  
  
It had been scarily detailed. Too detailed. And the calendar.......that was one of the most frightening parts of the dream, the fact that it had taken place in the future. And......it was as though it had really happened. She had really felt how cold Malik's skin was, felt how hard it was to breathe.........  
  
There was no way......that couldn't really have been a dream.  
  
Suddenly, something caught the corner of her eye. It was a gold.....glow......  
  
She turned to her bedside table, where she kept the Sennen Tauk at night, and her eyes widened.  
  
It was glowing.  
  
She was right, that had been no dream. With trembling fingers she picked up the necklace.  
  
That had been the future.  
  
Tears splashed onto her hands, as Isis turned over the possibilities in her mind. Was Malik's fate set in stone? Was there a possibility that what she had seen would not come to pass?  
  
No, she told herself. That was what would happen to her dear brothers........unless something was done. She looked up at the ceiling, knowing that directly above her head was a huge world, and although she didn't want to admit it, she *was* scared of what it might hold. Isis set the Tauk back on the table and sighed.  
  
Suddenly, a memory from more than ten years ago filled Isis' mind. She got up and crossed the room to a trunk that stood against the wall. Isis opened it, and found what she was looking for.  
  
It was a wreath made of flowers, old dried up flowers from long ago. The tears fell even faster when Isis thought back to the day Malik, only 4 years old, had given them to her.........she remembered the proud smile on his face, the sparkle in his violet eyes, and she remembered how Rishid had stood to the side, smiling at the antics of his younger siblings.  
  
That was when Isis knew. She knew she could - and would - face anything to save her brothers. She was *not* going to sit back and watch while her whole world crumbled at her feet.  
  
Straightening up and wiping her face, Isis crossed the room and picked up her deck, along with the Sennen Tauk.  
  
'Now,' she thought, swallowing the rest of her tears. 'If I were Malik, what would be the first thing I'd do...........?'  
  
********************************  
  
Kamilah: ......rather a weird place to end it, but.....yeah. ^_^  
  
Mojobubbles: Whee, that was a cool duel. ^^ I used that strategy to beat Rex in my game! o.o He had a BEWD, and I played Copycat and Reinforcements, then killed his BEWD, then Monster-Reborned it, and won! ^^  
  
Kamilah: Um......very nice aibou. Think anyone'll wanna know what questions you had in mind, maybe?  
  
Mojobubbles: ^^ Right. The questions I had when I wrote this were:  
  
If Malik, Rishid, and Isis weren't allowed to leave their house, then how did they get Duel Monsters cards? Because I saw a sort-of flashback were Yami Malik was remembering a time lil-Isis dueled lil-Malik.  
  
What, exactly, made Isis decide to go after Malik? What was this 'horrible fate' she kept talking about?  
  
And, of course, when did Malik leave with Rishid to go form the Ghouls? There were five years between the time their father was killed and Battle City......  
  
There were still a lot of things about the Ishtars that weren't answered in the 70-some eppiesodes involving them, so I wrote this! ^^  
  
Isis: *glaring*  
  
Mojobubbles: She's mad at me for that whole future thing. ^^ Although that *was* scary. o.o Seriously, my hands where shaking after I wrote that. Is that stupid? @.@ 


End file.
